why can't i beat 10NL?

Hi guys,

I actually got serious problems beating 10NL.

I played 25NL and pretty much got crushed. Now i tried to build a br from the scratch playing with a 100$ bankroll.

As it seems i cant adjust my game to the typical 10NL player, which seems to call ridicilous often, paying off too much of their unreadable two pairs.

This applies especially to premium starting hands like AA/QQ/KK.

Typical situation that seems to get me off my game and my roll:

i got AA in the small blind. 3 people limp, i raise 4xBB + 1 for reach limp + BB because of my position.
3 calls.

Flop comes with 5c Qc 7d.

What do I do, when my 3/4 potsize C-bet here gets called? Am Im pot committed by the turn? do i bet the turn anyway? if yes, i have to push any none none c turn, right?

Another spot I have troubles with, is when I'm on the button with KJ. 2 limpers in front. I REALLY hate limpers, and my tendency is to raise here. But people dont seem to care about the raise, and call it anyway, so it seems like its better to do not try to do this, right?

calling stations and slowplayers can be annoying to play against but all you really need is basic knowledge and patience (easier said than done i know). dont bluff except for the normal cbets and semibluffs since it will only get you tilted when they call u down with bottom pair. value bet alot and dont cbet into more than 1 player too often. KJo is a easy raise from the button regardless of numbers of limpers btw.

Couple things that will make you a lot of $$$

1) Learn to setmine
2) Stop overplaying one-pair. Win small pots with one pair.
3) Tighten up your see flop % to around 20-25%
4) Fold a lot more. Quit on the flop if it's not promising, play the hands you are confident about. It sounds like you are calling down marginal hands too much.

Post HH's!!!

I am a victim of not following my own advice, but I'm going to start. You need to take the time to search through your HH files, find the hands that you are iffy on, and post them here for review. Then, think about the advice given, adjust to your own play style, and try again. There are so many excellent players in this forum. Take advantage of every jewel of knowledge. You even have players that will review your entire tourneys. So post, Post, POST!! You will get better.

Stop thinking your pot committed, ever. In Ring games where you can reload you are never pot committed. You may have odds to call off your stack but if your beat, fold. As for AA/KK/QQ if you re-raise and get called, then C-bet and get called. Either that player has a hand, a draw or is trying to showdown so it's time to slow down. Most of the time I will either check behind the turn and watch for draws to complete. If they don't it's decision time. How much will you a) bet, b) call or c) re raise. It all depends on the read.

Here's what a typical hand with AA should cost, (obviously it depends)

Someone limps 1BB
you raise 4BB
one caller 4BB
blinds fold 1.5 BB
limper calls 4 BB
pot is 14.5 BB's

Flop
limper checks.
you bet 3/4 pot 10BB
caller folds
limper calls 10BB
pot is 34.5BB's

Turn
limper checks
you check

river
I would call about 20 or so BB's depending on Board, reads and villians stats. that makes the pot about 75BB's of which you bet 34BB's any more than that, you better be the one ballooning the pot or get out.


This is only one line. There are others. You need to understand what lines you are taking and why. Don't just ram and Jam the pot to get someone off a draw. You want them drawing, and calling. You just don't wan them to have odds.

For 10nl play, just play abc poker. Abc poker is probably not what you think, and if you think your playing abc poker, your probably not. What i mean is play simple poker, don't try to get tricky, don't have fancy play syndrome, don't think your daniel negreanu on high stakes poker and your going to pull the next tricky bluff. Just don't do it. Play simple, bet your good hands hard and aggressively, dump your bad ones. At this level, players will call almost anything, so bet your good hands hard. Also, try not to tilt, play PATIENT, even after you lose a big hand, try not win the money back quickly or get tricky to win it back. Just play solid patient abc poker the entire time. Also, variance plays a huge role at all levels of poker, so get in a lot of hands, it seems like you may not be playing enough if you were complaining of a downswing in the morning and you were back to even in the afternoon.

As for your posted situation, "i got AA in the small blind. 3 people limp, i raise 4xBB + 1 for reach limp + BB because of my position.
3 calls."

I think my advice in your other thread in my first post certainly applies here. If you are getting 3 callers when you raise 4xbb+1bb for each limper, Raise more!. Seriously, don't be afraid that occasionally they will all fold, if you have aa and are at a table full of calling stations, bet something more like 6xbb+1bb per limper, or possibly even more, it just depends on what they will call. Ideally you want to go into a pot with 1 maybe 2 people when you have AA/kk etc, you don't want to go into a pot with 4 people when your holding aa.

As noted, your not really pot committed unless you have like 3/4 or more of your money in and theres a really good chance your hand is good plus you can always reload. As for your KJ hand, yes if your at a table full of calling stations, i would tend to only raise more solid hands than kj, i don't think its bad to just limp here against calling stations. When you do decide to raise though, make it a good sized raise, even if its above the standard amount if you are getting called by like 4 people every time. As others have said, learn to setmine as they will by far be your most profitable hands. If you have PT what are you running? that may help us give you some more advice.

Just keep working at it. Learn as much as you can and try to learn something new each time you play/post/read. Read forums/books and Implement most of the relevant advice into your game especially the advice on posted hands. Post hands here and read up on others posts and the given advice and understand why they are suggesting what and why you would/wouldn't do things if you were in that situation.

Any other questions, let me know. Good luck man

dennis- at 10nl id just raise 15x with AQ+ 99+ and set/str8/flush mine with my small pairs and SCs and then overbet when i hit. Id also probably raise 4x or so from LP with big unpaired cards